


Present Spent With the Past

by starchaser22



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types, The Flash (Comics), Titans (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Cuties, Flashbacks, Love them, M/M, brief fight scene (not really), drug mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 00:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16964403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starchaser22/pseuds/starchaser22
Summary: Dick and Wally have been friends for years. While Dick's feelings have sometimes been questionable, he always puts their friendship and partnership first.





	Present Spent With the Past

**Author's Note:**

> so this is yet ANOTHER old fic that i uncovered and decided to finish, so if there are discrepancies in style, that is why.  
> thanks for reading!

_ 7 Years Ago _

 

_ “Popcorn?” _

_ “Check.” _

_ “Pajamas?” _

_ “Check!” _

_ “Bats?” _

_ “Preoccupied all night with the League.” _

_ “Robin?” _

_ “Has the night off!” Dick cheered, raising his plastic cup to the exclamation, soda dripping over the side. _

_ Wally laughed. Even with the distance and slight age gap, Wally West had endured more bumps in the road with Richard Grayson than anyone else, as both friends and partners. _

_ “Can I just say,” Wally paused, taking a large, dramatic slurp from his Diet Coke. “When the Big Bat is busy, and you invite  _ me  _ over to play Portal on the Batcave Monitors, it makes my heart feel fuzzy.” _

_ Dick laughed, powering up the Xbox. “I aim to please, just bleach your feet before taking your socks off.” _

_ “Runner’s foot,” Wally shrugged, grinning as the bright white from the welcome screen illuminated the area around them.  _

_ “God, poor Iris.” He continued to flip through the options, setting it up for multiplayer mode. “So, you think we can beat this in,” Dick glanced down at his watch, “6-ish hours?” _

_ “Well, they don’t call it a  _ speed run  _ for nothing,” he winked, wiggling his fingers over the joysticks. _

_ The Boy Wonder was silent for a few seconds, trying to hide his smile as the game began. “No one makes as many, nor as bad of puns as the Flash-clan.” _

_ “Dude, did you just call us a  _ clan _?”  _

_ “Well, that’s what you are!” _

_ “If we’re a clan, then you guys are a damn cult.” _

_ “How are we a cult? It’s just me, Bruce, and Barbara!” _

_ “Um, let’s see,” Wally began, taking his hand off the controller to make a show of dramatically counting each point on his fingers. “You’re all bird themed, won’t let any other heroes operate in Gotham, all of you are trained vigilantes, not the mention- _

_ “Okay, but what about that whole Speedforce thing? Like, what even is that?” _

_ Wally shrugged, putting his hands back on the controller as GLaDOS finally stopped monologuing. “Hey, I wanted to orange circle things!” _

_ “You mean the portals?” _

_ “I just started, I don’t know what they’re called!” _

_ “It is  _ literally  _ the title of the game.” _

_ “Hey, how about you-” Wally reached and threw a handful of popcorn at his friend. “Shut up.” _

_ Laughing, Dick shifted in his chair. “You know that Alfred’s gonna make you clean that up, right?” _

_ “Worth it.” _  
  


Present Day

 

“Master Dick, it appears that your guest has arrived.”

“Thanks, Alfred!” Dick called down the stairs, pulling a grey t-shirt over his head as he walked towards the door.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Wally tried to sound suave, leaning against the doorframe with his windswept hair and smoking Converse.

Dick rolled his eyes. “I trust you didn’t get lost finding the place.”

“Oh, yeah. Tricky location. Really tucked in a corner.” Of course Wally was teasing him; Wayne Manor could not be easier to locate, and they both knew that. “So what’s this I’ve been hearing about an explosion?”

“Right, yes, follow me,” He said, as if his best friend couldn’t find his way to any of the hidden Batcave entrances blindfolded and backwards. “A STAR Labs satellite facility was targeted a few hours ago. It’s far into the suburbs, which is why it took a little while to hear about it. The explosion was really powerful, but seemed contained, like it was really only intended to destroy one specific thing.”

“Any idea what?”

Shrugging, Dick fell into one of the chairs, leather rubbing against his forearms. “No, but I do have a few satellite photos.”

Wally slid into another nearby seat, rolling over to get a closer look at the monitor as the images were displayed.

“I was thinking,” he started, tracing circles on the armrest with his fingernail, “this has too many intricate details to go at it solo, but it doesn’t seem big enough to tackle with an entire team.”

“What are you saying? You wanna tackle a good ol’ Robin and Kid Flash team-up?” The Speedster grinned.

He smiled back. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, but I won’t wear the uniform.”

Wally stretched his arms behind his back and leaned farther into the chair, examining the wares and whats around them in the Batcave. “God, remember the shit that used to go down in here?” 

Dick laughed, “Yeah, and there’s still that stain under the desk from when you tried to chug all that soda.”

  
  


_ “Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chu- oh my  _ God _!” _

_ The soda was falling out of the cup faster than Wally could drink it, spilling down his chin and onto the floor.  _

_ “Okay, you win! You win! You can stop now!” _

_ With one final gulp, he slammed an empty glass onto the table. “Ha! I told you!” _

_ Dick sighed, hiding his smile by looking the other way. “When I said that someone shouldn’t drink a liter of 7up and Sprite mixed together, it wasn’t a challenge.” _

_ “ _ Everything  _ is a challenge.” _

_ The game was still displayed on the screen, but it was long forgotten. The two boys were just enjoying each other’s company. _

_ “Why is it always a negative gajillion degrees down here?” Wally leaned back in his chair, the wheels squeaking as he frantically rubbed his hands together, lightning sparking off of them. _

_ “Bats don’t react to temperature as much as humans do.” _

_ “Oh my god!” In one swift movement, Wally grabbed his empty cup and threw it at Dick’s head. _

_ “Wallace!” He yelled, ducking as to avoid the flying object. _

_ “Richard!” Wally laughed, pointing at him. _

_ “I hate you,” Dick accused, but his smile and stifled laughter deceived him. Wally responded with an overly-dramatic pouty face, to which Dick pinched Wally’s cheeks and said, “Oh, you know I’m joking. How could anyone hate this face?” _

 

“Kid Flash, do you have eyes?”

“If you are asking if I possess the gift of sight, then the answer is yes,” Wally teased over the comms, “But if you’re asking if I’ve found the location yet, then no.”

Dick rolled his eyes. You could always count on Kid Flash to bring humor to a mission. “Well you have about 20 minutes until the Night Guards change shifts, and I  _ really  _ don’t feel like any violence.”

“Oh, but who in Gotham would fight the legendary Nightwing?”

“Exactly, this is  _ Gotham _ ,” Dick crouched a little lower behind the fence, watching the parking lot to make sure no one unexpected arrived. “It may be the suburbs, but it’s still safe to assume that everyone I meet will want my head on a stick.”

There was a pause on the comms, faint static the only thing filling the otherwise eerily silent night. “They’re really-“ his voice cracked, “they’re really missing out.”

“Hm?” Dick replied absentmindedly, squinting at the sight of headlights. “Hey, Kid Flash, looks like we might have incoming.”

“ _ What? _ ” A loud crash, then a bang.

Dick couldn’t help but let loose a tiny giggle at his friend’s clumsiness. “Dude, did you just fall?”

“You said we had twenty minutes!”

“Just an estimation!” he defended. The car grew closer, crushing the gravel as it pulled into the parking lot. “Any chance you can speed things up a bit?”

“I’m trying! Other than the large pile of ash and the hole in the ceiling, nothing seems out of place. The rest of the facility is perfect, other than how they’re running low on size small latex-free gloves. Think you can bust anyone for that?”

“No rule against it.” The man shut off his headlights as he pulled into a spot in the middle of the parking lot. Instead of getting out of the car, he fumbled around inside, bringing up a flashlight that he flickered on and off in mirrors. Dick made a point to whisper as he said, “I think there may be something else going in here. Stay inside, and try not to break anything.”

 

_ “Wally! Don’t break it!” _

_ Running back in besides Dick, Wally caught a tumbling pillow. “I may be clumsy, but you know I would  _ never  _ betray you like that. Here’s all the snack food I could find.” He dropped several family sized bags between them. _

_ “See?” Dick said, smiling at his friend as he tore open a bag of Lays. “And who said pillow forts were for kids?” _

_ The air was quiet, save for the loud crunching of chips. Wally laid down on his back, hands folded behind his head as he stared up at the blanket above them. Too mesmerized by how the light streamed through the cloth, time drifted by, eyes fluttering, only interrupted by a soft buzz from Dick’s phone. _

_ “Bruce is gonna be out for longer than expected,” he explained, brushing the chip grease from his fingers onto his pants. “Alfred said it has something to do with aliens.” _

_ “Awesome,” Wally answered, trying to sound excited, but falling victim to exhaustion. _

_ Dick leaned over his friend, taking note of his sleepy eyes and tired expression. He rolled up the snack bags, tossing them in the corner before laying down beside Wally. _

_ The speedster groaned when Dick nudged him, throwing an arm over his eyes.  _

_ “We built a pillow fort and didn’t bother to bring any pillows into it?” Dick asked, directed at both Wally and himself.  _

_ For a brief moment, he had thought that his friend had already fallen asleep, but then Wally uncovered his eyes and extended his arm towards Dick. “Come on,” he grumbled, eyes still closed.  _

_ The Boy Wonder looked at the outstretched arm, then at Wally, then at the space provided to him.  _

_ He laid down beside him, rested his head on Wally’s forearm. _

 

All he saw was a flash of yellow and red before being slammed into a wall.

It took a moment for him to observe his surroundings; the dim corner, the lightning fizzling from the air.

And then, he realized.

“Wally? What the hell? I thought you were staying put?” Dick knew he sounded a lot angrier than he actually was, words coming out in short and fierce whispers.

“Yeah, okay,” Wally held his hands in defeat, “But there was a sniper in one of the windows, and he was aiming at you, so I just went for it.”

Dick ran his hands through his hair, windswept from the ride. Inhaling, he let it go, switching the point of conversation. “Did you find out what was going on in the lab?”

_ “ _ Oh, yeah, it’s just drugs. Like, weed and stuff.”

“Just drugs?” He couldn’t help but laugh, thinking about the kind of life they lived where they were actually  _ relieved  _ to find a secret government drug lab. “Well, I didn’t find out what the guy in the parking lot was doing. Could be unrelated, or also just, what did you call it?  _ ‘Weed and stuff.’” _

Kid Flash joined the laughter, head falling back as his hair flew in the wind. Dick braced himself on the wall, grunting as he pushed to stand.

“Oh yeah, sorry about the impact,” Wally chuckled, nervously scratching the back of his neck. “Still a little rusty from the Speed Force, lost control of where I was going.” He reached out, bracing his hands on Nightwing’s forearms, helping to keep him steady. “Are you okay?”

“Just a little sore,” he smiled up at his friend. “Thank you.”

Wally nodded in acknowledgement, taking in their surroundings for the first time. “I know I said that I lost control of where I was going, but honestly, I have  _ no idea  _ how far we went.”

Dick looked up and around them. “Well that’s not good.” He adjusted his footing, taking note of the soft glow on the horizon, the moon illuminating silhouettes of rocks and trees. “Since it’s not anything huge, we could always just call the police?” He suggested.

Wally looked at Dick, then began laughing again. “You know, sometimes I forget the police exist.” He released Dick’s forearms, pressing two fingers to his ear. “Hello, yes, 911? Hi, I’d like to report a crime.” 

After a few back-and-forths between Wally’s end and the cops, the man reached down near Dick’s waist. Dick jumped for a bit, then relaxed when he realized Wally was just going for the handcuffs. Of course he was. What else would he be doing? Dick caught his eye peering curiously at him, but neither man said nothing as the Flash sped off the arrest the criminals, leaving Dick in his dust.

 

_ “Wally. Wally, Wally! Wake up! Wally!” Dick shook his friend’s shoulders, peering down as Wally’s eyes fluttered open. _

_ “Whuuu-” He groaned, head flopping to the side. _

_ “Are you okay?” Dick pestered, placing one hand on Wally’s cheek to try and make eye contact. “You were shaking and all sweaty. It sounded like you were having a nightmare.” _

_ Wally waved his hand to the side. “Sleeeeeep.” His eyes swept closed, not caring enough about returning to the hellish dream he had awoken from. _

_ “Oh, Wally,” Dick laid a hand on his friend’s neck, using his thumb to check his pulse. He sounded sympathetic when he said, “I hope you’re okay,” and laid down on his chest, ear resting over the naturally fast-beating speedster heart that lie there. _

_ Well, now Wally’s awake.  _

_ Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around The Boy Wonder. Well, not as much “wrapped” as “awkwardly laid them on top of.” Wally tried to rub his hand in circles as he whispered, “Thanks for caring.”  _

_ It remained quiet for a few moments, the air remaining both tense and safe, somehow simultaneously. Both boys were pretending to be asleep, while actually lying awake, wondering what it all meant and worrying about everything. _

_ After a little bit, Dick shifted his head. “I hope they’re okay.” _

_ Wally tried to look down, soft black hair itching his chin. Dick didn’t have to clarify who he was talking about, Wally knew, and while it’s true that Batman and Flash are, well, Batman and Flash, they’re still human. They’re  just as vulnerable as everyone else, and, when faced with an off-world mission, you never know what you might encounter. Whenever a mission is extended, it means something went wrong, and there is always a chance that the Justice League may come back with one less member. _

_ Wally blinked against the burn beneath his eyes. If he lost Uncle Barry… No, he doesn’t want to think about it. There was a point, shortly after he had moved in with Iris and Barry that they had sat him down and discussed the dangers of the Flash’s job. Iris had assured him that, if anything were to ever happen, she would still be there. Thinking of it now, the memory left an aching emptiness in the pit of his stomach. _

_ “I hope so too.” _

 

“Don’t you work in law enforcement? How did you forget about the police?” Wally was just teasing Dick, legs spread across the couch and onto his lap. 

After alerting the cops about the drugs, Wally had ran back quickly and cuffed them all to a admittedly very obvious lamppost nearby. It had been much further than expected, several miles, so it was a good thing he’d done it quickly and without confrontation. Eventually, they were able to make their way back to Gotham, and with it, the Batcave.

Dick laughed. “Dude, no offense, but you need to get a handle on your newfound speed. You’re just lucky I keep a few of those Speedster Energy Bars down here.”

Wally rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of said energy bar. He twisted each of his feet in small circles, stretching out the tense muscles in his ankles. “If anything, I’m just surprised Bats allows you to store some here, considering you, you know, moved out and stuff.”

Dick made a show of rolling his eyes, laying one hand on Wally’s outstretched calf. “It’s hard for him to disagree once Alfred’s on your side.” 

Wally laughed, his whole body shaking. Dick loves seeing him happy, seeing him laugh, head thrown back and mouth wide open. A lock of bright red hair fell into his eyes as he sat back upright. Taking the last bite of the energy bar, he crumpled up the wrapper and threw it on the couch.

“Hey, don’t forget to clean that up,” Dick’s tone was lighthearted, even if he was deadly serious. “Don’t want B banning Speedsters from the house  _ again _ .” The warning was real, but Dick knew that it didn’t matter. If Wally didn’t pick it up, he would. He’s put his neck on the line for his best friend countless times; picking up a stray wrapper wasn’t a big deal.

“Oh my  _ god,  _ I forgot about that!” Wally turned into another fit of joyful laughter, thinking of all the wild adventures they’ve had at Wayne Manor. “I think we need Bart to come over so we can reenact that beautiful, fateful evening.”

Whenever Wally is delighted, it’s enchanting. He starts laughing and smiling, and soon enough, Dick finds himself joining. Something similar to an aura that he gives off, and it fills Dick’s heart to the brim, threatening to overflow out of sheer happiness. Muscles relaxed, posture slumped, wrinkles around his eyes-

Suddenly, Dick shifts. Wally’s legs fell from his lap, dangling to the floor as he reaches forward. It’s almost like muscle memory, really, though he logically knows that he was in total control of his own body, that he was the one who reached forward and pushed a single golden lock from Wally’s forehead.

His friend smiled at him; this one was a softer, a more intimate smile than before, and somehow, that made it worse. His skin was tingling, a deep, endless, nervous flutter sinking into the pit of his stomach.

Dick tucked the piece of hair behind his ear, tracing it over a few times with the tips of his fingers before curving around and running them over his jawline. Wally tilted his head ever-so-slightly, long eyelashes casting dark shadows over his cheekbones as he reached his hand up, curving it around Dick’s wrist.

Nightwing has tough, calloused hands, born from years of fighting, but Flash’s hands are soft, leaving the area he touched feeling warm, his nerves on edge as he moved his hand up, wrapping their fingers around each other.

But then Dick is moving again, and suddenly their bodies are flushed against each other. He doesn’t know how, he doesn’t know why; the only thing that Richard John Grayson was sure of is that he didn’t want to move. Wally brings their hands around, resting it over his chest. He’s able to feel his heart, count the individual beats as they happened in real time.

  
  


_ Dick could feel Wally’s pulse, feel the blood pumping through his veins everywhere they touched. On the inside of his knee, where their legs were entangled. On his wrist and fingertips, where their hands were knotted. Most of all, he could feel it along his forehead as it laid in the crook of his friend’s neck. Dick counted his beats, experienced and felt how fast they were. Even by Speedster standards, it was rapid, intense. _

_ Originally, Wally had been woken up by a nightmare. They stayed awake for a little while, worrying about their respective mentors, but somewhere along the way, Dick had ended up sprawled on top of him. It was comforting, laying in Wally’s arms, even helped him drift off for a few moments.  _

_ But suddenly, Dick was wide awake, hyper-aware of their current predicament. Wally appeared to be sleeping, despite his quickening heart, while Dick was  _ pretending  _ to be asleep. He didn’t understand exactly  _ what  _ was happening; all he knew was that there was this warm, foreign flutter in his chest.  _

_ No, this couldn’t happen. They couldn’t get involved like this. Dick wanted it, but you can’t always have what you want. _

_ With one last squeeze of his hand, Dick slowly crept back up onto his knees. He looked down at his friend, laid peacefully before him, and knew that this was far too intimate to be okay.  _

_ Dick rose to his feet, dragged a loose blanket behind him, and went to sleep on the couch. _

 

“I should have done this ages ago,” Dick whispered, the two of them so close that they could feel each other’s strangled breaths upon their lips. Neither of them moved, waiting for the other to close the gap. They were frozen, together.

Finally, Wally overdramatically sighed, said, “Screw this,” and brought their mouths together.

It was like fireworks. Maybe that was because of Wally’s lightning, the electricity behind his skin, or maybe that was just some type of divine fate or whatever. Would it always be like this? Would it have always been? All those years Dick spent pinning and hiding and shutting it all away, was this what he was missing out on?

“Damn,” He said, pulling back, eyes still closed, savoring the last lingering ghosts of the touches. ” _ Damn,  _ Wally, can we do that again?”

Wally laughed, his body shaking against Dick’s, hands coming up to comb through each other’s hair. They shared a smile. “ _ Hell _ yes. Let’s do it.”

Dick dared to slide his knee between Wally’s thighs, causing the man beneath him to yelp and for them both to start laughing. “You okay there, Walls?” He asked between giggles.

Wally didn’t answer, he just pulled them together again and kissed him deeply, savoring the moments that they had together.


End file.
